Finally, Parents Take the Heat for Spoiling Their Children During the Holidays

It’s usually everyone else’s kids who are spoiled (never our own), but a new Parents.com survey reveals that moms and dads are admitting they have a problem when it comes to spoiling their kids during the holidays.

In the survey of about 6,000 parents, almost 60 percent of moms and dads reported feeling that their children are more spoiled than they were as kids. Why are do they feel this way? Because despite economic hardship, surveyed adults said they plan to spend an average of $271 per child for the holidays this year, and one in ten parents said they planned to spend around $500 for each kid.

Parents feel guilty if they can’t give their kids everything they want for the holidays, but they also feel guilty for spoiling them. Three-quarters of survey participants said they felt guilty saying no to things on their children’s wish lists.

So, what happens when the little tykes get a truckload of gifts but aren’t grateful for them or complain because they want more? The good news is that 98 percent of parents say they take some sort of corrective action. 68 percent will make the child apologize, 19 percent will reprimand the child and 8 percent will have a chat with them later about how to behave. Of course, 57 percent find that it’s useful to remind ungrateful children that Santa is watching and there’s always next year.